Saki's Secret
by VentXekart
Summary: This is just a little fluffy one-shot about the loader of Rabbit Team and a possible explanation as to why she might be so quiet and spacey in the Girls Und Panzer universe.


**Saki's Secret**

* * *

Over a year ago, the tankery teams of Ooarai Girls High School managed to win the Sensha-dō Tournament and topple the long-time champions of Kuromorimine Girls High School. With that victory, they managed to bring in enough money to prevent the school from closing down for good to the point that they could keep the school ship afloat for a decade or more. It wasn't easy though, considering the fact that each team was made of various personalities such ranging from the School's Student Council to the Automatives Club, and to the History Buffs that modeled their personalities and lives after various people of historical interest.

One of those teams happened to be made up of Freshman, all of which commandeered the American M3 Lee. There was the level-headed yet caring commander Azusa Sawa, the boyish 75mm gunner Ayumi Yamagou, the rash and impulsive driver Karina Sakaguchi, the patient radio operator Yuuki Utsugi, the bespectacled and optimistic 37mm gunner Aya Oono, and then there was their 37mm loader who was a silent and expressionless girl known as Saki Maruyama. While most of the girls of Rabbit Team were often seen socializing and working together outside of their tankery elective, Saki was the odd one out. There were a few rare moments where she actually managed to show some emotion such as when the team decided to watch the War Comedy film _'Kelly's Heroes'_ where despite having her blank face she openly shed a few tears, she pointed out the weaknesses of Kuromomorimine's Elefant and Jadgtiger, and during the so-called 'all-star university match' she pointed at the ferris wheel which was later released from its frame and then effectively scattered the surrounding tanks belonging to Selection University.

Other than those rare moments where she actually spoke or expressed herself she was otherwise a mystery to the other Tankery Teams of Ooarai. The members of Rabbit Team noticed some of her quirks but just assumed she was a quiet girl that liked to be left to her own business. Miho Nishizumi on the other hand...was concerned about this as it could adversely affect Ooarai's chances in future Sensha-Do matches so as Commander of the entire team she along with a few of her comrades decided to find out more about the 37mm loader of Rabbit Team.

The following events would reveal that there is more to Saki then everyone had thought.

* * *

"Azusa?" Said girl perked up at the sound of her name, turning her head to the leader of the Sensha-Do team.

"Ah, Nishizumi-senpai!"

"Please, just call me Miho."

"Ah, Gomennasai." Azusa paused for a moment before turning back to the commander, "Ano...What do you exactly need? I thought practice was over for today."

"It's nothing bad, I just wanted to talk to you about something..." Miho put a hand on the freshman's shoulder reassuringly before gesturing for the younger girl to follow her, "...Or rather someone."

"Eh?"

Azusa raised an eyebrow inquisitively, the student council wasn't having any problems that she knew of and the rest of her teammates hadn't gotten into any trouble so what could she possibly mean?

"I've noticed that you and the other members of Rabbit Team tend to spend time with one another but one of your teammates in particular has caught my attention."

"Who?"

"Saki Maruyama."

"Ah."

Azusa nodded, though the loader in her team was quiet a majority of the time and also had a tendency to stare out into space, none of the other girls seemed to care and just treated her normally.

"What about her?" Azusa asked curiously.

"I was going over some footage of our prior matches for the sensha-do tournament and our match against Selection University and I noticed some peculiar things about her. Do you happen to know what I mean?"

The leader of Rabbit team paused before leaning up against a nearby wall with a finger on her lip, eyes shut, mentally reviewing the few things she knew about Saki.

"Well, she isn't really that much of a talker...The few times she has spoken was when she pointed out the weakness of Kuro's Elefant during our match against them and then when she pointed out the Ferris Wheel during our match against the University team."

"That was her?" Miho was surprised to hear that, she assumed that little strategy was a hare-brained plan that was hastily put together by the girls of Rabbit Team but she was mistaken.

"Yeah, she pointed it out to us when we thought she was staring at one of the butterflies that were flying around her. Then again she has had a tendency to stare into space outside of tankery but we never figured out why." Azusa gave a short shrug of her shoulders before turning back to Miho.

"Why are you asking about this now though? I mean it hasn't come up as an issue in the past so it shouldn't be a problem now either."

Miho's smile faded away, she had a small frown on her face, biting her lower lip. She wasn't sure how to tell Azusa about the reason why this was being brought up but...

She inwardly shot down the idea of lying to the freshmen, the student council vowed to tell everyone the truth after Ooarai nearly lost its school ship so she would do the same. She let in a deep breath with her eyes shut and then released it all before opening her eyes and facing her junior.

"I was worried about whether or not Saki would be a liability to your team and as much as I'd like to say otherwise, I have seen footage of her behavior before, during, and after matches to be concerned about it. She hasn't really tried socializing with anyone outside of your team and she rarely utters a sound."

"A-A liability?"

Miho nervously rubbed her right arm, uncomfortable with the current situation.

"Yes, and if that is the case then we may have to pull her from the team..."

Azusa's jaw dropped, she was astonished that the commander would say something about her classmate but a part of her felt that the former Nishizumi heiress had some legitimate reasons to be concerned. There was also the fact that despite she, Ayumi, Karina, Yuuki, and Aya knew Saki as a classmate and teammate they didn't really know her as a friend per se. They didn't know about her family nor did they know about her education prior to becoming a student at Ooarai and most important of all they didn't know why she is so...quiet. Saki Maruyama was almost like a ghost or phantom among the living, a breathing, walking enigma that they accepted despite having no knowledge of her to begin with.

However, Azusa was not going to say that the gray brunette was a liability just because of her unusually...absent behavior. She was one of the fastest loaders of Rabbit team and she was as Yukari Akiyama put it the 'Protective Mother' of the team. Still it wouldn't be a bad idea to find out more about her and this was the perfect opportunity to do so. So she'll just dig up whatever she can find out about Saki and observe her too if necessary. Worse case though, she could always head to the student council and let them hear her out.

"Nishizumi-Senpai!" Azusa said, clasping her senior's hands in her own, she had to say something about this issue now.

"I-I understand why you have brought this up but I don't think she is a liability. Quiet? Yes. Spacey? Maybe a little bit. But regardless she is my teammate and my friend so I'm not going to suggest that we take her off the team. Especially since she is one of the fastest loaders in our school's sensha-do elective." The brunette sighed before giving the redhead a concerned expression before continuing, "That being said though...You do have a point considering some of her...quirks. If need be I will find out the reason why myself. In fact, I'm going to head to the student council and see if they can tell me anything."

Miho raised her brows in confusion, her mouth open a bit considering how far this girl was willing to go to defend her teammate but inwardly she knew that her own teammates would- No, they have done the same thing for her on multiple occasions. She sighed again before giving her kouhai her usual grin.

"Alright then, I'll let you take of this issue on your own. However, if you do think otherwise please let me know before hand."

Azusa nodded once, twice, thrice, four times before bowing; "Arigatou gozaimasu Nishizumi-Senp- I mean, Miho. I will see to it that this issue is resolved. First things first though, I'm going to stop by the Student Council's office and see if they can tell me anything." She then rose up and began walking to the administration building, hopeful that Anzu-senpai, Momo-senpai, and Yuzu-senpai can tell her anything.

* * *

"What do you mean you can't disclose her records?"

Azusa thought it would be simple, just go to the administration building, ask to see the student council, meet them in their office, and ask about what information they had on Saki Maruyama. However, it turned out to be the opposite especially since Anzu was in her chair facing away from her.

"I can't disclose the personal information of a student to a fellow classmate, neither can Yuzuki or Momo. "

Frustrated, the leader of Rabbit team decided to press further.

"Why not?"

Anzu sighed from the other side of her chair and then turned about to face the freshmen, her usual smile replaced with a stern expression on her face.

"Look, I'm the student council president, Yuzu is my vice-president, and Momo is the public relations manager. Not only do we have obligations as student council members that must be upheld but we also have _legal_ obligations that need to be upheld as well. This includes keeping a student's personal information confidential, unless you are family, a guardian, a staff member of this school or law enforcement. I can't just dump copies of her records for anyone to peruse for shits and giggles. Seriously, do you know what could happen if a student's permanent record got into the wrong hands? I'm not just talking about the potential for someone to use it for blackmail, harassment, hazing, or public humiliation...I'm including the possibilities of identity theft, stalkers or worse. Plus, even if I or any of the other student council members do disclose this information to you we would not only lose our positions in the student council but then we would be expelled and dragged into a trial so fast it would make our heads spin...and guess who else would be in line besides us?"

"I would?" The freshman asked, testing the waters with her answer.

"Bingo. So once again I will not do what you've asked of us."

Azusa sighed in frustration, eyes closed shut as she grasped at her face.

"Are you sure there isn't a way that I can see Saki's records?"

"Nope. I can't."

Azusa was about to leave the room until she heard the student council president clear her throat, one of her brows were raised as she took out a dried sweet potato.

"I'm curious though, why are you be asking for the records of Maruyama-chan anyway?"

Seeing this as her last shot at getting what she needed to know, she decided to tell her everything about her prior conversation with Miho Nishizumi. It seemed like Anzu didn't care less as she continued to snack on her favorite food but she was listening intently as indicated by the fact she kept eye contact with Azusa and seemed to look thoughtful by the end of her story.

"...and that's why I'm here. So can you please help me?"

When the student council gulped down the last of her dried sweet potato she decided to respond.

"Nope, I still can't disclose her personal information..."

Azusa slouched in defeat, a little groan of exasperation coming out of her lips.

"...But technically speaking I can point you in the right direction in regards to your little inquiry."

"Eh?"

That caught her attention and before she knew it there was a piece of paper with some information scrawled in kanji. Anzu smile and gestured for her to take it, Azusa complied and found an address written on it. More specifically, it was one for a location on-board the school ship. Before Azusa could thank her, the girl chuckled and then turned to the door to her office.

"You can come out now, I know you've been listening in by the door." She smiled smugly, "I'll give you kudos for your attempt though."

Suddenly, the door burst open and in came Karina Sakaguchi, Yuuki Utsugi, Ayumi Yamagou, and Aya Oono who were now unceremoniously piled on the floor.

"Now then." Anzu started speaking again with her vice-president giggling a bit and her public relations manager now gripping the bridge of her nose between her thumb and index finger, "Just go to that address and someone there will tell you everything you need to know about your little friend."

All of the girls paused for a moment before looking back at each other, unraveling themselves from the impromptu dog-pile and then stood up and bowed,

"Arigatou gozaimasu, Anzu-sama, Momo-sama, Yuzu-sama."

Before leaving the room, off to the location that the address provided.

"Eh, you're welcome." Anzu muttered with a wave of a hand.

"Heheh, looks like the freshmen are thanking you Momo-Chan."

 **"DON'T CALL ME MOMO-CHAN!"**

* * *

It was but half an hour later that the members of Rabbit team minus one had made it to the address proscribed by the Student Council President. It was surprisingly easy to reach the destination which was in one of the more rural areas nestled inside the forests on the port side of the school ship. There, they found a small township of sorts with multiple Japanese log homes and a small market for foods and drinks. Despite the fact it was hidden under the forest it was...oddly peaceful. Some of the girls were entranced by the beauty of the environment, especially Aya Oono, Ayumi Yamagou, and Yuuki Atsugi who were smiling at the sight of beams of sunlight piercing through the dense canopy.

As they continued through the cozy little town, they finally stumbled upon the address that Anzu provided for them. It was a quaint three-story Japanese log home with a small garage underneath the second floor and front door off to the side, there was a small deck on the third floor with a screen door leading from a single bedroom, and surrounding the home (with the exception of the driveway) was a picket fence that separated the front yard from other neighboring houses.

"Is this the place?" Yuuki asked, with Azusa unfolding the piece of paper with the address on it to double-check. The leader of Rabbit Team nodded,

"This is it."

"I wonder who here could tell us more about Maruyama-chan." Ayumi muttered.

"Wait, look!" Aya pointed to the stoop on the front door and speak of the devil, there was Saki Maruyama sitting there quietly, her head pointed upwards as she stared into space. She took a glance to the left and saw her teammates immediately freeze, apparently not expecting Saki to be there. She gave a slight tilt of her head before giving a small wave to her teammates.

Not wanting to be rude, they hesitantly waved back before proceeding to join here.

"Hey, Saki...sorry to bother you but-"

Azusa was interrupted by the door behind her opening, revealing a women who was the spitting image of Saki only with some differences, she was taller, slightly more endowed, and her hair was a darker shade of brown rather than the sandy color the freshmen had.

"Saki? Who are these girls? You didn't tell me you invited anyone over."

Saki turned her head, facing the women with her mouth partly open.

"They're my teammates." she said, almost in a whisper.

The women paused for a moment before snapping her fingers in realization.

"Ah, you're her friends from the Tankery Club! I'm Saki's mother, it's a pleasure to meet you all."

* * *

Surrounding a Kotetsu heated table were all of the members of Rabbit team in one room, they were handed cups of tea by Saki's mother as she hummed a tune to herself. When she handed out the last cup, she smiled before joining them.

"So, how come you girls have never come over until now? I was proud to hear that my little girl has managed to make some friends here and join a tankery team of all things!"

The girls with the exception of Saki glanced at Azusa, who flinched at seeing her teammates pointing towards her for their explanation. Azusa cleared her throat before turning to the women in front of them.

"Maruyama-san, we're sorry to bother you but...recently our Team Leader Miho was worried she would be a liability."

"Wait, W-what? A liability? Why would she assume such a thing? I mean Saki has been on her best behaviour so I doubt that would be the problem."

Azusa bit her lip before Aya continued,

"True but she's quiet...very quiet,"

Ayumi decided to chime in,

"Yeah, she rarely talks to us at all with the exception of our matches with Kuromorimine and Selection University,"

Karina was next,

"She also tends to stare into space a lot too or has her mind on other things during the matches,"

Yuugi finished off,

"So we were wondering why she does the things she does..."

The elder Maruyama quickly glanced at her daughter, seeing that she had put her hands in her lap and tilting her head down a bit.

"Well, I guess it can't be helped...I thought she would've done this but I guess she didn't feel comfortable enough to tell you all the truth."

Saki fidgeted a bit in her spot when her mother sighed.

"Tell me girls, do you know what Autism is?"

The girls had varying answers to that question as Azusa, Aya, and Ayumi heard of it while Yuugi and Karina hadn't heard of it. Seeing their answers, Saki's mother gently placed her teacup back on her plate.

"Well, for those of you that don't know...It's a disorder where- Kami, how do I explain this? It basically mean's her brain is wired a bit differently than a normal person."

"How so?" Karina asked, curious.

"Well, Autism usually affects a person's ability to communicate, how they interpret different sensory information, and how they behave along with adding a bunch of quirks like hand-flapping, doing certain daily tasks in a certain way, stimming or even obsessing about certain topics like Pokemon, Cats, or something else."

Azusa was visibly concerned "Wait, you're not saying that she-"

"No, she's not mentally retarded. In fact, on the spectrum she's high-functioning."

"Spectrum? High-Functioning?" Yuugi asked, "What do you mean by that, Maruyama-san?"

"Autism has a 'spectrum' that usually refers to how well someone with the disorder communicate or interact with people. People with low-functioning autism don't really communicate verbally and their symptoms might be more obvious in public. However, High-Functioning Individuals can usually communicate very well and their symptoms might not be all that obvious until something happens. People on the low end of the spectrum usually are put in separate classes from regular students while anyone on the high end of the spectrum usually can be included with normal students and can usually live their lives as fully independent adults."

"So what you're saying is..."

"My daughter is Autistic."

There was a long moment of silence, Saki once again fidgeted a bit in her seat. She didn't want to tell anyone about this because she didn't want to end up being a burden or liability to others, she barely had any friends in Elementary school because everyone thought of her negatively. She's been called 'Freak', 'Weirdo', 'Defective', 'Retarded', and so many unflattering things that she eventually grew numb to it all. But the loneliness was unbearable, she felt as if she didn't belong anywhere. When she finished Junior High School, her mother had brought her to Ooarai when she got a job offer. She had a clean slate because she'd be among strangers who didn't know of her but all of that was going to go down the drain...or so she thought.

"Well, that explains a lot but...she's still our friend." Aya said,

"Sure, she might be autistic but I don't think she's a bad person." Ayumi replied,

"Yeah, she's just a little different from the rest of us." Yuugi agreed,

"I don't see a problem with it at all to be honest." Karina shrugged,

"This is something that we're going to have to explain to the other teams but I doubt any of them will have a problem with it, I certainly don't." Finally, Azusa smiled and put a reassuring hand on Saki's shoulders. The sandy-haired brunette looked at her teammates- No, her friends and with a small curl of her lips made a retort; "Arigato...my friends."

This was the beginning of a brand new chapter in Saki's life and with a quick blink she uncharacteristically pounced on Azusa like a cat and hugged her, still baring that small grin on her face. Immediately afterwards, Karina yelled "Group Hug!" and the rest of Rabbit Team joined in a pile of tangled limbs, giggles, and smiles.

* * *

It wasn't until the next day that Saki decided to reveal her secret to the rest of the Sensha-Do, she was reluctant at first but her friends offered to stand by her no matter what happened from that point forward. Despite some of the Autistic girl's worries, the members of the other teams were accepting of this new revelation.

Miho gave Saki an honest apology, even offering to see if she needed accommodations while on the team. Saki accepted her apology but declined her offer for any accommodations, stating that she was capable of functioning without them.

Mako wasn't really surprised about Saki's condition, she had a feeling something was off with the sandy brunette but she didn't feel the need to interject while she was in the club.

Hana being the compassionate young women she was, quickly accepted Saki's condition as nothing more than a part of her.

Yukari just shrugged off the confession, she didn't see any reason why Saki's disability would be a problem.

Saori was ill-educated in regards to Autism and the people who lived with it but otherwise wasn't bothered by it.

Turtle team being made up of the three top members of the student council weren't surprised and didn't comment about it at all. Most likely because they already knew about Saki's condition before hand.

The four history buffs of the Hippo team brought up historical figures who were on the autism spectrum or were speculated to be autistic in some way, shape, or form. In a way, that was them saying that they were okay with it.

Duck Team, much like Yukari shrugged off the confession as they too were ambivalent about Saki's disability.

The Public Morals Committee which made up Mallard Team politely stated that they were obliged to assist students with any sort of handicaps or disabilities and offered to help Saki if asked although they did warn her not to violate any rules or regulations of the student code, much to her bemusement.

Nekota of Anteater Team admitted that she had played a few games online with a gamer on the spectrum although she didn't really go into many details.

As for Leopon team, Tsuchiya said that she had a cousin with PDD-NOS (Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified) that went to another school and actually embraced the Autistic loader of Rabbit team.

Despite the small spacey smile on her lips, Saki was overjoyed to hear that she would no longer be marginalized by any of her peers for the rest of her school years at Ooarai and that she would have friends who would stay by her side for a very long time.

* * *

 **This short fanfic was inspired by something I stumbled upon on the YMMV section of the Girls Und Panzer TVTropes page when I was doing some research on some of the characters for possible future fanfics. Near the top labeled 'Alternate Character Interpretation' it had a small tidbit on how some fans had theorized that she might be Autistic and I thought it was an odd idea. Needless to say, I was interested enough to write a fic based off of it and here we are.**

 **I hope you enjoyed this _Girls Und Panzer_ one-shot.**

 **Cheers,**

 **-VentXekart**


End file.
